Orlando

[Many
Centuries]

Orlando

"...the ever-young and slender gallant named Orlando, who adventured
in North Africa during the sixteenth century, apparently a male during
this part of his or her career."

Featured in :

Orlando Innamorato (1495)

by Matteo Maria Boiardo

Orlando Furioso (1516)

by Ludovico Ariosto

Orlando (1928)

by Virginia Woolf

Biography

Orlando, the omnisexual hero-heroine drifts dreamily and bemused from
one era to the next, born as a woman and changes sex often.'How many
years, I wonder, has it been, or centuries, since last I knew the pleasure
of these sands between my toes? Travelling without company I soon came
to those dear, familiar ruins in the north, set on their stone plateau;
those tumbled relics of a city that I still walk in my dreams of childhood,
where my girlish fingertips still know each dent in each worn stone as
though it were a long lost cousin. Tethering my horse I found my way through
the familiar labyrinths and chambers, mounting finally the old iron ladder
to our city's central courtyard, or at least its remnants. Some of my
old fellows left their hole-like dwellings at the city's outskirts to
come to greet me, though the Troglodyte condition is much worse in them,
and this has advanced since last we met. I hardly could make out a word
they spoke, though our discourse was amiable, and they seemed most amazed
to find me now a man'

OBSERVATION

Judging from Orlando's pocket watch, it is possible that s/he was a
member of one or many Leagues throughout the ages.

OBSERVATION

In the Almanac of V2 #4 it confirms that Orlando was "seemingly
affiliated to the Prospero, Gulliver and later Murray groups."

OBSERVATION

Alan Moore says in "Alan Moore's Exit Interview" by Bill
Baker

"And after that, me and Kevin would probably like to get
on with some individual stories, some Tales of The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen that could focus upon, say, one character. Orlando is a very
tempting character to do a one-off special based upon, especially after
you see the way that we've treated him/her in The Dossier."

OBSERVATION

Orlando is identified as a member of Mina's second League, and appears
to be featured in a grouping with Thomas Carnacki, Allan, Mina, and
A.J. Raffles.